100th Post!!!!

This had better be epic.

...

Damn.

I just wanted to share my excitement for new toys! I got a work BlackBerry, and it has been fun figuring out how it works. It's actually pretty un-intuitive and I wish I had some say into what they ordered for me, but whatever. It is so different from every other phone I've ever had, that I'm sure there would have been a learning curve for me no matter what. I'm getting the hang of it though, and already have my emails hooked up to it and everything. Neeeeeeeaat.

And in other "toy" news, I'M GETTING A KINDLE! Yeeeeeeeyyyy! Patrick starting thinking of stuff that we should get for me before going on the big tour this summer, and the Kindle was up there on the list. Then I got all excited about getting one, so we went ahead and ordered it now so that I could start using it right away. I also got a green case for it... of course. I am super psyched. But I'm also worried I will abandon my physical books too- I have a bunch that I need to read still, and actually just got a new series ("new" meaning new to me, not actually new) from a used book store we discovered by where our new house will be. I really want to read those still, but it will be tempting to download them onto my Kindle, making it pointless for me to have the copies after all. Except that I love having books anyway. I guess I'm not that torn. Hah.

Ok, so much for an exciting 100th post. Sorry, world. This weekend we're going back to the house site, so hopefully I will have some update pictures for you all.

I officially have one week of professional employment under my belt. Hooray.

Week one of work at Youth Orchestra of the Americas went pretty well. I like my boss and colleagues, and I'm pretty sure that they are pretty excited to have me on board too.

The commute isn't so bad, as long as I am able to get in and leave early. Obviously I will have late days here and there when I have meetings or huge projects to finish, but other than that I think my schedule will work just fine with them.

I left at 5:30 am on Friday, and instead of it taking an hour to get in, it took me 20 mins. That was amazing. And my drive home, even though it was a bit later than I was planning on (3:30 pm), it still only took me 25 mins instead of the usual hour. Actually on Thursday it took me closer to 1 hour, 45 mins because there was an accident on 66. I definitely like my early commute better. Hopefully it will be similarly quick mid-week.

I got a book-on-CD from the library for my commute anyway. It has been such a long time since I regularly went to the library; it has been fun re-acquainting myself with this resource.

I already have travel lined up for my work too. In February I will be in New York for a couple days while the orchestra plays in Carnegie Hall! I'm sure I will also be going to a few of our fancy fundraiser events that we are in the process of planning for February in various DC locations. One of them will be at the Colombian Embassy. I went to tour it and it is an amazingly beautiful space. That will be an awesome event.

Also, I am tentatively holding my schedule in the summer for the big tour as well: Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil! My boss hasn't confirmed it yet, but I think I might be going. It will be a long time to be away from my Patrick, but will also be a fantastic experience. I have never been to South America!

Tomorrow Patrick and I start house-hunting! We are hoping to be able to find a place and close in time to meet the first-time-home-buyer's tax credit deadline. I doubt that any of the houses we see tomorrow will still be on the market by the time we are able to make an offer, but I am excited to start finding out what we will be looking for and narrowing down our search. I can't wait to own a house. I have been nuts about houses since I was a little girl. Finally being able to pick out one of my own instead of daydreaming over floor plans is going to be amazing.

Twilight

Cover of Twilight (Twilight, Book 1)

I started writing this as my review of Twilight under my LivingSocial book collection, but realized it was getting a little too in-depth, so I figured I'd better do a blog post on it instead.

I read Stephenie Meyer's Twilight over Wednesday and Thursday, and I have to say that I enjoyed it thoroughly, but was fairly disappointed on several fronts.

First and foremost, I wish I hadn't seen the movie first, because it was EXACTLY THE SAME. Boo. Minus the bad acting, but to be honest, the bad acting may have accurately portrayed the level of writing that this book had.

When I started reading this, I was expecting more plot and character development than the movie had, since that is usually the way that book-to-the-big-screen works. (except with Stardust by Neil Gaiman, which I think actually had more going on in the movie.)

Worst of all, I really felt that Meyer was doing a lot of "telling" and hardly any "showing," which is what makes books so engaging and imaginative. It seemed like every other paragraph was essentially saying, "no, really. Like, these people are, like, SO HOT. They're like models, ohmygosh!" Which, needless to say, really broke the mood for me. Good books are written so that you fall in love with the characters without being told to do so. I could make this same complaint about many of the books I've read (and am currently reading), so it's not like this is big news or anything.

I just was expecting more from the huge hype. I guess I should have known though, considering that it is all the rage with the "tween" crowd: not exactly the hardest audience to impress. "The hot guy digs the awkard new girl? AND it's forbidden love? Sign me up!"

With all that in mind, I'm not gonna lie: It was definitely an entertaining read. I was hooked, and, thanks to the huge print and the fact that I already knew what was happening since I saw the movie, it only took me a handful of hours to get through.

I'll definitely be getting New Moon from the library as soon as it's available (I've placed my hold already) and I expect that as soon as I start reading that one, I'll place my hold on the next one too.

Oh brother.

Brisingr

Image via WikipediaJust finished Brisingr. The ending made me bawl. Partially because I was home alone and I didn't feel bad about lettin loose and embracing a cathartic moment.

I am kinda embarrassed that I forgot that Paolini decided to make it 4 books instead of a trilogy, and I was very confused when I was getting toward the end of the book and Eragon was still... right, no spoilers in case someone is even slower getting to reading it than me. But ya, I was very skeptical about how the heck he was going to get to the big main battle and stuff that you know has got to happen, and I was very sad that there wasn't more interaction between Arya and Eragon, but I'm sure all of that will be fulfilled in the next one, whenever that is supposed to come out.

Ya, I think I'm gonna stick to my tactic of late which has made for much less distress between book releases; I've been reading really old fantasy books that most people have already read, but are still new and exciting for me- and I don't have to wait for the next book to come out! Plus by now they're super cheap in paperback at used bookstores, which I have had great luck with getting pristine copies for cheap. Hah. Now, onto reading the rest of The Wheel of Time... oh and books for class... right, those are kinda important too.